Chapter 1867 - 1867. Ghosts

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Noah and the others crossed multiple layers of orange light that featured different defenses before reaching a completely white area. That sudden change in shades initially worried them, but an orange humanoid figure quickly materialized among that whiteness.

The humanoid figure didn't seem to belong to a proper human. It was three meters tall, and its arms appeared oddly long. Its legs also resembled the empty monster that had invaded the insides of the sky.

Moreover, its facial features seemed unable to stabilize on precise details. The fabric on its head continued to shake and tremble without ever solidifying.

It wasn't hard to differentiate the features founded on Heaven and Earth's memories from those depending on their forgetfulness. Their unclear face proved how they struggled to remember their existence even if they recalled vague details about their old body.

"Why is it white?" Noah immediately asked while inspecting the separate space around him.

"We didn't create our new existence out of thin air," The figure replied while waving its hand to materialize a series of praying mats. "We already had that project in mind. Our defeat forced us to make that drastic change."

The figure sat on the mats and waved its hands to create a series of cups filled with the grey liquid. Noah and the others didn't hesitate to sit at that sight. The drink was impossible to refuse now that they had confirmed that the old Heaven and Earth didn't have any hidden intention.

"You won't accept our perfect army nor our city," The orange figure commented while drinking from its cup, "But you want our knowledge and tools. We don't get it, but something tells us that we used to get it."

Noah instinctively glanced at King Elbas. It had become a habit for him to search for his companion with his eyes whenever a troublesome matter escaped his areas of expertise.

King Elbas didn't disappoint Noah. The expert had already fallen deep into his thoughts as he studied the matter. His curiosity forced him to consider solutions and fixes to every problem he encountered, and the old Heaven and Earth were going through something that he might be able to solve.

The issue wasn't with what the old rulers had lost during the severing. Their features had to be somewhere since it was almost impossible for existences that had approached the tenth rank to lose those parts forever. After all, even weaker experts like Great Builder and Supreme Thief had managed to continue to exist after their death. The same had to apply to the old Heaven and Earth.

The problem consisted in the locations of those features, and King Elbas could only identify three possible places.

His first idea saw those memories and lost features still inside the sky. That would obviously make them untouchable unless the experts defeated the current Heaven and Earth or performed a theft. Still, that sounded like the most unlikely of his guesses due to the even more evident lack of personality of the current rulers.

The second idea involved internal damage in the old Heaven and Earth. King Elbas believed that the old rulers were preventing themselves from gaining access to part of their memories.

That guess even saw the new Heaven and Earth as possible culprits behind an eventual sealing of those features, but that didn't sound reasonable to the expert. Keeping those features in the sky or throwing them into the void made more sense, especially since the current rulers already did that.

The third idea, which also was the most reasonable, saw the rest of the old rulers' features in the "Breath" itself. Heaven and Earth themselves had identified that energy as their existence in the end. It felt only normal for their memories to be there. Still, that guess created multiple problems, especially since the new rulers were still in control of that fuel.

King Elbas didn't hold back from explaining his ideas, but he didn't go further even if plans that could improve the old Heaven and Earth formed in his mind. The expert didn't completely trust the ancient rulers, so he didn't want to help them until he was strong enough to deal with the possible negative consequences of that action.

Noah and the others understood that point, so they quickly switched the topic of the conversation while they drank as much as they could. They had many questions about the sky and the stormy regions, and the existence in front of them probably had many answers.

"You were fighting someone else when Heaven and Earth attacked, right?" Noah promptly asked once King Elbas' speech ended.

The sudden question startled the old rulers. They didn't think that Noah would have noticed that detail so quickly. Their delay in helping against the Tribulation wasn't a small thing, but everyone could come up with multiple explanations. Instead, Noah had gone straight for his theory, and the old Heaven and Earth could only confirm that his guess had been correct.

"The old fairness was perfect," The orange figure repeated in its ancient female figure. "We tainted it by favoring our old species, but the new us corrupted it, and the world naturally reacts to their suppression."

The figure waved its hands and created tiny figures that depicted the four upper tier dragons and other random magical beasts. "The first magical beasts were the unbeatable opponents that we deserved. That's why we moved on and opted for corruption. We thought that the world wouldn't be able to counter us if our power went beyond what it could accomplish."

King Elbas couldn't help but take out scanners that recorded those revelations. He was learning about the changes in the world from the old rulers. He didn't know if he could find something more valuable than that.

"We already belonged to the old core as the corruption began," The orange figure explained, "But we know how we think or used to think. We continued to exploit the fairness and successfully approached realms that the world's will couldn't touch. However, we became our own enemy at that point."

The figure pointed at Noah before continuing. "You are just one of the counters naturally generated by our corrupted fairness. This city is another one, and other existences that had the potential to defeat the system have appeared throughout history. Many have died, most of them actually, but some still survive inside the storms, maybe even in the sky."

"How did they defeat so many of them?" Noah asked, deciding to ignore the last revelation for the time being.

"They did what the flaws in their fairness did," The orange figure announced. "They created counters to the counters. The mighty dragons have tiny c.o.c.kroaches as their sworn enemies, the unique existences with a chance to touch the sky have specific Tribulations tuned for their power, and we have something similar too."

"An enemy?" Alexander asked.

"Ghosts," The old Heaven and Earth described. "Ethereal creatures capable of feeding on light and mental energy. We are suppressing those in the area, but we know that Heaven and Earth didn't forget about us. An army will invade us as soon as we show weakness."

"How strong are these ghosts?" Noah asked. "Can we defeat them?"

"You might have it a bit hard due to our similarities," The old Heaven and Earth explained, "But the others should be fine against them, especially the horned one."

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Author's notes: 1-2 hours for the third.